government has nonemergency federal workers granted administrative leave on monday due to hurricane. president obama declared a state of emergency for the commonwealth of massachusetts as a result of hurricane sandy. u.s. federal offices in d.c. closed. philadelphia, the southeast pennsylvania transit authority, septa as its called, will suspend all services at the end of the sunday service. listening, they're not playing around, if you're in any of these areas, you need to listen to what your officials are telling us. george howell is in kill devil hills, north carolina. george, you have been out there all day. tell me how the weather has intensified. >> reporter: don, i can tell you right now we are actually getting a break in the wind. the winds are dying down a bit, but they are also shifting. we can tell that's happening, and that strong rain is backing off, but this storm continues to move to the north and it is changing hour by hour. here within the last few hours we've been in touch with emergency management officials here in dare county just to find out what they're dealing